Giffords: Senate health bill hard on Ariz.

An Arizona Democrat who voted for the House's health-care reform bill has put House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on notice that she has a big problem with the rival Senate-passed version.

In a Jan. 13 letter, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords told Pelosi, D-Calif., that she is worried that financially strapped Arizona couldn't afford the estimated 200,000 new Medicaid enrollees that the Senate measure would mandate. The state would have to foot the nearly $4 billion expense of adding the extra Arizonans to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System through 2020.

All five Democrats in Arizona's House delegation voted for the House health-care bill, which Giffords said would provide "a total savings of nearly $7 billion against the current baseline through 2020 to Arizona's share of the cost of AHCCCS." The House voted 220-215 to pass the bill.

But with Tuesday's Massachusetts special election putting the Democrats' 60-member, filibuster-proof Senate majority in jeopardy, House Democratic leaders are considering a vote on the Senate alternative as-is. If the House passes the Senate bill without changes, the legislation would go directly to President Barack Obama.